CLINICAL EXPERTISE The Austin area currently ranks first in the nation in rate of population growth among metropolitan areas with more than one million people, and the diverse population of Travis County is projected to top two million by 2050. Department of Neurology faculty serve this expanding community and beyond with their clinical expertise in neurological diagnosis, value-based care and clinical research trials.
A National Leader in Advancing Care in Cerebrovascular Disease The Stroke Division and the Seton Dell Medical School Stroke Institute oversee patient care, teaching and research on cerebrovascular disease, with clinical services at the Primary Stroke Center at Ascension Seton Hays, the Primary Plus (thrombectomy-capable) Stroke Center at Ascension Seton Williamson, and the Comprehensive Stroke Centers at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin and Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas where 14% of ischemic stroke patients were treated with thrombolytics and 17% were treated with mechanical thrombectomy in the last year, rates higher than the national averages for stroke treatments at comprehensive stroke centers. The Stroke Division was a founding member of the Lone Star Stroke Research Consortium, a group of Texas hospitals funded by the Texas State Legislature to conduct research for the improvement of the health of all Texans. In 2019, our stroke program pioneered a transition from alteplase to tenecteplase as the standard stroke thrombolytic, conducting an observational cohort study that demonstrated tenecteplase treatment was associated with reduced times to initiate thrombolysis after hospital arrival, reduced times of interfacility transfer for higher level of care, better clinical outcomes and lower costs of hospital care. Now the program is leading several multicenter and international registries comparing alteplase and tenecteplase in routine clinical practice to determine whether the impact of the new treatment can be established beyond our local experience. Learn more at bit.ly/3sFblc9 4
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Brain MRI scans of a patient with an ischemic infarct due to left middle cerebral artery occlusion, with parameter maps derived from RAPID software. DWI, diffusion weighted imaging; ADC, apparent diffusion coefficient; Tmax, time to maximum of residue function; HIR, hypoperfusion intensity ratio. Images courtesy of Dr. Adrienne Dula.
Modeling Patient-Centered, Multi-Disciplinary Care UT Health Austin, the clinical practice of Dell Medical School, is committed to expanding the reach of multi-disciplinary, integrated clinical practice units that assemble a diverse team of clinicians and support staff to address all of a patient’s issues at the same visit, providing comprehensive care that is evidence-based and systematically tracked for quality improvement. Our clinicians and staff in the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences’ Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Center diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions using customized cuttingedge immunotherapeutic regimens; crucially, they also attend to quality of life by understanding the influences on patients’ physical and mental health, whether across the lifespan or between visits, Specialty Pavilion at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Ascension.
